The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Modern day data centers often make use of a large number of data center devices and components including various manufacturers' servers, routers and processors, just to name a few. Such components are often mounted in an equipment rack. Each equipment rack often has a power strip associated with it, with each power strip typically having a plurality of power outlets (also sometimes called “power receptacles”) that allow an AC power plug for each device to be plugged into the power strip. One specific form of highly intelligent power strip is known as a power distribution unit (“PDU”). The Liebert Corporation (an Emerson Network Power company), is a leading manufacturing of PDUs.
In a data center environment, challenges can arise in tracking which components have their power cords plugged into specific power outlets of a multi-outlet power strip or PDU. For example, when one specific piece of equipment that was initially installed in an equipment rack, and plugged into one specific power receptacle of a power strip or PDU, is removed therefrom and a different piece of equipment, having different power draw and cooling requirements, is reinstalled in the equipment rack and plugged into the same power outlet, this can give rise to situations where the data center manager is unaware that an equipment configuration change has been made to the rack. This could potentially be detrimental to the other equipment in the rack if the newly added component has a power draw requirement that exceeds a safety margin set for the rack.
Another challenge is for the PDU to determine, in real time, whether the same piece of equipment has been reinstalled in the equipment rack and plugged into the same power outlet as the component that was previously removed from the rack. Still another challenge is for the PDU to identify specific ones of a group of similar components, such as a plurality of the same model of servers, when a first component of the group is unplugged from an outlet and a different component from the same group is reinstalled in the rack and plugged into the same outlet. When such equipment changes are made at the rack level and data center management personnel are not apprised of the change, this can add significantly to the difficultly in managing the data center environment. Specifically, it can complicate the data center manager's task of ensuring that all equipment racks are actually configured with the equipment that the data center management believes them to be. If a problem should develop with the components in a given rack, previously made changes to the rack where certain pieces of equipment were removed and replaced with different types of equipment can add significant difficulty in troubleshooting the problem.